In yet another disastrous blunder, the BP oil firm has let leak 95 tonnes of oil from a BP platform into the North Sea. This comes five years after the monumental North Sea Spill back in 2011, which was a staggering two and a half times bigger.
Planes have been monitoring the situation by air and the oil appears to be slowly moving in a northern direction. The platform, which was station 46 miles west of Shetland, was shut down at 10am on Sunday morning immediately after the spill was confirmed.
It is thought a technical issue with the system designed to separate water, fluid and gas is at fault. BP has decided to let the oil disperse into the sea, but is not ruling out other methods to tackle the leak.
The multinational billion pound company issued a statement, saying:
“The release was stopped within an hour once the issue had been identified and Clair production was taken offline.”
It has not yet been calculated what the total impact of the spill will be. There are multiple seabirds and breeding colonies between Shetland, Norway and the Atlantic, all at risk of being affected.
An RSPB Scotland spokesman said:
“We need to know from BP and the maritime agencies exactly what type of oil has been spilled, if it is breaking up in the water column, and what the statutory conservation agencies are advising.
“It is critical that there is a full and open report of what has happened, with assurances that the situation will be monitored, and details of seabird concentrations in the vicinity revealed as soon as possible.”
